Biography:

Tess Critchlow has entered just about every snowboard competition held at Big White Ski Resort since 2001 when she was just six years old. In 2013 and 2014 she won back-to-back junior national titles at Big White and has also recorded numerous Nor-Am Cup podium finishes at her home resort. In 2012-13 she was the overall Nor-Am Cup champion for snowboard cross. Critchlow made her World Cup debut in February 2012, but began to compete more regularly on the circuit in the last couple of seasons.

Through the 2016-17 season she has four top-10 finishes on the World Cup, highlighted by sixth-place finishes in Feldberg, Germany in January 2016 and Bansko, Bulgaria in February 2017. She competed at her first world championships in 2015. At the next worlds two years later, she suffered a crash during a training run but luckily came away with just bruises, allowing her to compete. She won the national title in 2016. In her Olympic debut at PyeongChang 2018, Critchlow was the top-ranked Canadian in women’s snowboard cross, finishing ninth.

A little more about Tess…

Getting into the Sport: Started snowboarding at age 2… Began on a small hill in her backyard, slowly progressing to larger hills… Entered her first competition at age 6… As she and her brother got older, her dad and his friends would take them via snowmobile to trackless powder bowls and she even went heliboarding at age 10… Outside Interests: Enjoys biking, wakesurfing, longboarding and being outside in the mountains… Has recently dabbled in parkour… Odds and Ends: Her father surprised her with snowboard cross tickets for Vancouver 2010 where she saw one of her idols, Maëlle Ricker, win gold, sparking her own Olympic dream… Favourite motto: Go big or go home…